The Final Stretch

It's hard to believe that we're already in the FINAL (har har) stretch before some major life changes! Joe's law school finals begin this week, will go through May 11, and then he'll be DONE with his first year of law school (YES!!). We're looking forward to his summer work schedule and actually spending time together. The baby is 38 weeks along, so there are possibly just two weeks left before we meet our "Tiny"! We're still praying for an arrival after May 11... we'll see what God decides. :) 

So, for a quick recap of what the Naples Tompkins Trio has been up to: 

We've gone on what we think may be our last date before our little one arrives, we have rearranged Joe's office to accommodate Tiny's belongings, and we celebrated three years since we started dating (awww). We were so happy to spend time with Mom, Dad, Vanessa, Robby, Angela, Teresa, Aunt Lily, and Fr. Tom when they came to see Vanessa's play in mid-April -- and Fr. Tom graciously blessed our little apartment! 

Joe was appointed as the new "Schola Master" by the law school chaplain (against his will and he's actually looking to pass this title off to someone else asap) and he has also received Honorable Mention during the moot court competition. Now he is studying night and day for his finals and we won't hear much from him in these next two weeks - please keep him in your prayers! I've survived an injection-turned-tendinitis in my foot (long story lol, but on the mend now), I've been slowly but surely checking things off the "before the baby arrives list", and my mother is coming at the end of this week to stay with us and be "on call" should Tiny decide to enter the world before May 13. Still quite active, Tiny's new favorite activity is to kick his/her mother in the ribs, be pushed back to a more comfortable position, and then kick my ribs again. This seems to be our new game and Joe likes to take a turn pushing back at the baby too haha. :)

Also, for those who do not have facebook, use the below link to see our absolutely beautiful maternity photos taken by Brianna Bauer: 

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.522887298583.2012699.108200091&type=1&l=2c037342c8  

Last date night before finals and baby!

36 weeks

38 weeks
(Please forgive the on-the-verge-of-blinking eyes!)

The office side of the room...

The baby's side of the room! 

Lantigua Pictures

February and March


Easter

lol!

Sorry, I really am spamming the blog!

Videos!

This was about a month and a half ago, Veronica still does this.

This was taken the other night when Veronica decided to stay up late with Mommy & Daddy!

Isabella turned on the radio because she loves to dance. Sorry for the annoying song!

Blast from the Past: Jack Christopher's Birthday 2012

Blast from the Past: Bowling Fun

Blast From the Past: New Year's Eve 2012

She's getting good!

Yes... I'm spamming the blog ;)

Pictures Brianna took on Easter

I thought I'd share with those of you without Facebook!

Easter

We've enjoyed the Easter pictures so far! We had a busy and enjoyable Easter Sunday! Our morning started out with the girls searching for their Easter baskets and digging into their goodies. We went to the 9am Mass and celebrated a beautiful day (of course it took a few minutes in the beginning to overcome my initial frustration of feeling like I was walking into a cafeteria full of conversation)! After a few family photos and Veronica's morning nap, we spent a few hours at Mom & Dad's. It was a beautiful day outside! And of course, wonderful company! We left around 4 to have Easter dinner with my side of the family. I can't believe I didn't take any pictures of the spread - I'm not very good about remembering to take pictures of the food! There was lamb, pork, ham, broccoli, carrots, green beans, potatoes, sweet potatoes, bread, and sangria. For dessert we had flan and I made a dairy free cheesecake that surprisingly tasted pretty close to the real thing! We missed you out of towners! We love you all and look forward to seeing more pictures.

March Madness

Well, it doesn't look like much madness was going on in March. I couldn't believe I only averaged about a picture a day!

VA Tompkins Easter

I thought I would just go ahead and copy and paste my last two posts from the Suarez family blog; the first is from Good Friday and the second is our Easter recap. We look forward to more Easter pictures from the rest of the Tompkins clan!

We had a beautiful Easter celebrating the Resurrection of our Lord. It was such a wonderful weekend of delicious food, good company, partying, playing, and quality family time. Cecilia and Ryan Jr. had a fabulous time with all of the Easter festivities, and Ryan and I delighted in watching them have so much fun all weekend long. On Saturday, we enjoyed a yummy family breakfast followed by a morning of cookie decorating and egg dying. Cecilia really loved these activities but Ryan Jr. preferred to run around the family room half naked wreaking havoc because he knew I was distracted and was going to let him do whatever he pleased. In one picture, you'll see him looking rather devilish after dumping Cecilia's basket of eggs, which she had been carefully protecting from him all morning. During naps, I prepared some pies to add to the Easter desserts, and when the kids woke we headed to the Kazas' for some of Tabitha's amazing hot wings and bratwursts, as well as skitter rides and jumping on the trampoline. It was so nice that when we put the kids down to bed that night, we could finally answer "yes!" to the question Cecilia had been asking us at bedtime for weeks: "Is the Easter Bunny coming tonight?"

Cecilia and Ryan Jr. were ecstatic to find that the Easter bunny had filled their baskets and hidden eggs around the house, and when we asked Cecilia why he did this, she replied "Because on Friday, Jesus died, and today, he is ALIVE! Because he LOVES me!! And Mommy loves me TOO!!!" We think that she may have a future in Theology. The kids really enjoyed hunting for eggs in the family room, and although Ryan Jr.'s lack of concentration in this activity somewhat worried us about how he would perform during the outdoor hunt later on, he proved that he could hold his own after all. Our time at the Kazas' was so wonderful and we really enjoyed their world-famous hospitality and endless supply of food, as well as the company of the Ashburn Suarezes. All throughout the day, we felt such an outpouring of graces and God's love, giving us feeling of deep gratitude for all that God has given us. We are all so incredibly blessed!

April Shenanigans

Perhaps this is not the most Good Friday appropriate post, but I thought that before the Blog starts to fill up with everyone's Easter picture slideshows I'd post a few pictures of the kids recent April activities as well as my Easter cookie orders. I also wanted to include a video of Ryan Jr.'s fake "counting" as well as one of Cecilia singing her favorite princess song, "A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes" while wearing her (boys) Toy Story PJ's.

Good friday- Easter!

i hope you guys had a great Easter! i love you and miss you!!! xoxoxoxoxoxoxo. love aunt teesa.

Someone is taking her first steps!

She is definitely strong enough and has great balance, but is extremely cautious!

Nicolette's Baby Shower

We had a wonderful time celebrating the beautiful life of tiny Tompkins! We cannot wait to meet him/her. We missed you ladies that couldn't join us! Here are photos of the day.